I never really understood this phrase as a kid growing up, it's one I would hear my mother use on a regular basis when talking about the latest heinous crime her sister had committed which was usually overspending to have a better car than her sibling rival or something equally as trivial.
Now however as a police officer I understand this phrase all too well and we are all guilty of it. I remember during training if it wasn't diversity they were beating the drum about it was 'Partnership working', the be all and end all approach to delivering the ultimate service to the public. You know what, if we all bought into it, I think it may just work, but no one does. Instead everyone protects their own, works within their own 'remit' and it causes progress to almost grind to a halt when the simple thing would just be for people to be a little more flexible. Yes it may be a little work now that you hadn't banked on, it may be something slightly outside your remit, your normal routine, but imagine what we could achieve and how much wasted time we could save in the future if we all worked TOGETHER.
Tajfel (1970) studied how the slightest difference in conditions between groups can cause discrimination, the term 'minimal group paradigm' was coined. Basically a 'them and us' mentality, groups that for no apparent reason feel negatively towards one another for no good reason other than they're in a different room, different department , different organisation. Sometimes it feels like the police, healthcare, CPS, social care, children's authorities etc need a group 'banging their heads together' session.
I'm not absolved of this, i've been guilty of it too, but the more I see how the short termist, lip service approach to tasks for other people does nothing in the long term, the more I see that only by really embracing true partnership working can we ever move forward and make a difference.
RANT OVER
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